Tag Archives: Conan

TV Reminder: ‘Conan’ premieres tonight on TBS [Update: the ratings are in…]

News, Television, , , , , , ,

Conan O’Brien returns to the boob tube.  Tonight.  11PM ET.  TBS.  Do it.

Tonight’s guests are Seth Rogen, Lea Michele, Jack White, and the guest we voted on (Team Coco is still tallying the results).  The remainder of this week’s guests include Tom Hanks, Jack McBrayer, Jon Hamm, Charlyne Yi, Fistful of Mercy, Michael Cera, Julie Bowen, and Jon Dore.  Conan airs Monday through Thursday.

Bonus! Look after the break to see the “Conan Pale Whale” by artist Yiying Lu.  It really makes for a wonderful desktop background.

Update: Deadline reports that the Conan premiere attracted 4.2 million viewers last night, making this telecast the most watched late night talk show of all time on basic cable.  He beat out fellow cable hosts Stewart and Colbert, as well as network TV competitors Letterman, Kimmel, and yes, Jay Leno.  He drew in 3.3 million adults 18-49 and 2.5 million in 18-34.  The projected median age of the viewers was 30–the youngest of all late night talk shows. Continue reading TV Reminder: ‘Conan’ premieres tonight on TBS [Update: the ratings are in…] →

Conan O’Brien testing the Internet waters in pre-TBS premiere with ‘Show Zero’ [Update: watch it here!]

News, Television, Video, , , , , , , ,

Conan doesn’t premiere on TBS for another week (we’re only one week away, woohoo!), but that won’t stop the former Late Night host from interacting with his fans.  Tonight (11/1) Conan will be streaming live “Show Zero”, a short webisode that should give fans a taste of what to expect when his TBS debuts for real.  Tonight’s show will feature Conan along with sidekick Andy Richter and The Show Zero House Band.  Brought to you by–you guessed it–Coke Zero.  It all goes down at 11PM in “TRIPLE-SIMULCAST action”; the stream can be accessed at TeamCoco (which has received a handsome relaunch design and new logo), YouTube, and Facebook.  Happy streaming, and welcome back Coco!

Update: Wow, that lasted a whole 5 minutes.  Conan wasn’t lying when he said this would be “the fastest talk show ever.”  Conan introduced viewers to his offices, blasted through one monologue joke, and invited guests Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) and Steel Train (who only played the first chord off their new self-titled album) to make extremely brief cameos.  The house band consisted only of Jerry Vivino on the flute.  And Andy Richter was there to promote Diet Coke (not Coke Zero, strangely).  Anyway, watch the mini-mayhem unfold after the break. Continue reading Conan O’Brien testing the Internet waters in pre-TBS premiere with ‘Show Zero’ [Update: watch it here!] →

24 Hour Coco Cam is LIVE right now!

Hilarity, Television, Video, , , , , ,

On October 20th at 1PM EST/10AM PST Conan’s HQ in Los Angeles started broadcasting LIVE to the Internet!  They shoved a camera in the stairwell of their “comedy bunker” and you don’t want to miss all the crazy shenanigans that’s going down right now.  The camera will remain on for a whole 24 hours.  So far you’ve missed dancing tacos and a dude in a dog suit playing poker and drinking a water bottle through his eye hole.  Watching the live stream is quite mesmerizing in the strangest way possible.  Click here to access the stream.  And if you’re on Twitter, go on and request the production crew/interns that pass by to do something crazy; don’t forget to hashtag your tweet with #LiveCocoCam.  Right now it’s 4:30AM EST on the 21st, and there’s a late-night party going down, so whatcha waitin’ for?

Update: It’s over, folks.  Head over to Team Coco to watch highlights from the 24 hour cam.  Every wonderful shenanigan has been saved for posterity in video and still image formats.  Fun fact: according to early estimates, some 660,000 people tuned into the live stream at some point during the 24 hour period.  As Deadline so emphatically points out, that is the average audience TBS gets in the 11PM hour with George Lopez!  Get ready America, Coco is coming.

[Via TeamCoco]

Conan’s band gets named, fans “voting” for first guest

News, Television, , , , , , ,

Conan’s late night house band has gone through a couple names in recent years.  The Max Weinberg 7 stuck for a whole 16 years during Conan’s tenure at Late Night with Conan O’Brien.  The Tonight Show Band didn’t last nearly as long for reasons you should be aware of.  And it then changed to The Legally Prohibited Band this year when Conan brought the band with him on The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.  Today the house band gets a brand new name that will hopefully stick for years to come: The Basic Cable Band.  It’s got a nice ring to it, huh?  As we already know, drummer Max Weinberg has left the band and guitarist Jimmy Vivino will take over as band leader.  He will be joined by returning band members Scott Healy (keyboards), Mike Merritt (bass), Mark Pender (trumpet), Richie “LaBamba” Rosenberg (trombone), Jerry Vivino (saxophone, woodwinds, and vocals), and James Wormworth (drums).

Yesterday it was announced on the TeamCoCo blog that the fans will have the power to decide the TBS late night show’s very first guest.  Potential guests include Tom from MySpace, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Jack Nicholson, Pope Bendict XVI, Vladimir Putin, REO Speedwagon, Hassanal Bolkiah (The Sultan of Brunei), Thomas Pynchon, Gerhard Ertl, Arlene Wagner, and the full cast of the live-action “Fat Albert” movie (not including Kenan Thompson).  Click here and get your vote on!  You are restricted to one vote per day, but you can vote as many times as you want and for how ever many people you want.  Take heed of this disclaimer, though: “None of these people have actually been booked on our show. For one reason or another, we haven’t contacted any of these people – In fact, we’re kind of hoping that, if someone on this poll starts getting a lot of votes, these folks will actually feel a bit guilty and will agree to be our first guest!!”

Conan premieres November 8 at 11PM on TBS.

[Via Deadline; TeamCoCo]

It’s official: Andy Richter to join Conan on TBS

News, Television, Video, , , ,

You’ve heard it here first, folks!  OK, maybe you haven’t… Anyway, longtime partner-in-crime Andy Richter will be joining his best bud Conan O’Brien when the new TBS late night show premieres in November.  Richter rose to fame right alongside Conan since the premiere of Late Night with Conan O’Brien way back on September 13, 1993.  After taking time off to star in a handful of movies and failed TV series (Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Andy Barker, P.I.) he came back home when Conan became the host of The Tonight Show.  After the NBC/Leno fiasco resulted in Conan’s departure from NBC, Richter journeyed with Conan on the The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour and hosted the TBS special Team Coco Presents: The Conan Writers Live.  In a statement Richter shared his excitement about the news prompting his return to Conan’s side as show writer and sidekick: “I’m thrilled to be going back to work with Conan, and very excited to start a whole new venture on TBS.  However, I am mostly looking forward to getting out of the house again.”  Conan’s response?  “This decision was made without my authority.  I will get to the bottom of this.”

Conan premieres November 8 at 11PM on TBS.  Look after the break for Conan’s video response.

[Via TeamCoCo] Continue reading It’s official: Andy Richter to join Conan on TBS →

First promo for ‘Conan’ is here!

Hilarity, Television, Video, , , , , , ,

Today TBS revealed the first TV promo for Conan!  Oh, just watch it!  CoCo returns November 8 at 11PM.

And peek after the break for more Conan O’Brien shenanigans.  He’s been answering fan questions and his response videos are nothing short of hi-larious. Continue reading First promo for ‘Conan’ is here! →

The Max Weinberg 7 is no more

News, Television, , , , , ,

When you tune into the premiere of Conan on November 8, don’t expect to see Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7 stage left.  The famed Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band drummer will not be joining Conan’s move to TBS for reasons undisclosed.  Guitarist and keyboardist Jimmy Vivino will be taking over as bandleader.  You will recognize him since he’s been part of the Late Night and the short-lived The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien house band for some time now.  James Wormworth, the barefoot drummer who would take Weinberg’s place when he’d be absent and on tour with Springsteen, will permanently become the new drummer.  Max Weinberg, it’s been a real pleasure.

[Via NYTimes; RiverfrontTimes]

Conan announces the name of his new TBS show!

News, Television, Video, , , ,

Today Conan O’Brien announced the name of his new TBS show.  He pointed his followers on Twitter to his TeamCoCo website where a video (embedded above) greets his fans and reveals the “simple, pure” name of the show.  “Spoiler alert: The words “Tonight” and “Show” aren’t in it”, Conan tweeted.  On the site he says, “I was really pushing for “360 with Anderson Cooper featuring Conan O’Brien”, but no one had my back.”  I won’t spoil the announcement for you, so click play!  I cannot wait for the return of Conan.  He comes back to the air November 8 on TBS.  Look after the break for the official image of the show name.

[Via TeamCoco; Twitter] Continue reading Conan announces the name of his new TBS show! →

Conan releasing two comedy (rock) albums on Jack White’s Third Man Records label

Music, News, , , , , , ,

With his highly anticipated TBS show looming on the horizon, Conan O’Brien is readying two comedy albums for his most loyal fans.  The first record, “Conan O’Brien Live at Third Man”, is a live LP that features “an amazing set of rock and roll tunes and hilarity” and includes performances by Conan and The Legally Prohibited Band (from his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour), 7 Nation Army, and The White Stripes’ Jack White duet with Conan of Eddie Cochran’s 20 Flight Rock.  This 12″ vinyl is available to purchase today.  The second record “And They Call Me Mad” is a 7″ vinyl; the A side features a improvisational spoken word take on the Frankenstein legend, and the B side is an interview with Conan conduced by Jack White.  This record is due out August 24.  Both of them were recorded at Third Man Records (founded by White) in Nashville, Tennessee during his stop there on tour.  A blog post on the TeamCoco website describes the studio session:

Conan blazed through a rocking setlist of stuff from our Legally Prohibited show – as well as a few other jams that we’ve never done!  The energy in the room was incredible: The band lit by a dim red light, the hot Nashville air thick with excitement; the room packed to capacity – it was a scene the likes of which I’ve never experienced.  I could totally see this show being something that happened outside under a tent in the South in the 50’s.  A very, very cool vibe.

[Via EW-MusicMix; TeamCoco]

Conan’s down but not out

News, Television, , , , ,

When NBC kicked out Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien, they made sure his contract stipulated that he could not display his talents on television until September 2010.  But that doesn’t stop him from performing on the road!  According to TheWrap.com, Conan is planning a live comedy tour and he’s making dates for the initial run as we speak.  Conan Live should keep our appetite whet until Fox picks him up in the fall.  Everybody–CoCo, CoCo, CoCo!

[Via IGN]